The present invention relates to a toothbrush.
Traditionally, teeth are cleaned by means of a brush onto which is applied paste from a separate toothpaste container. Proposals have heretofore been made for interconnecting a brush with a paste-containing container, whereby paste is ejected from the container, through a passage in the brush, and onto the bristles. In this regard, attention is directed to U.S. Pat. No. 1,902,859, issued on Mar. 28, 1933 to Joseph, U.S. Pat. No. 1,905,960 issued on Apr. 25, 1933 to DePhillipps, U.S. Pat. No. 2,978,722 issued on Apr. 11, 1961 to Kusakabe, and French Pat. No. 2,262,934 issued in 1975.
It has been proposed, for example, to eject the toothpaste by means of a manually displaceable piston mounted in the container. Also, it has been proposed to provide a manually actuable valve at the brush so that the connecting passage may be closed after ejection of the toothpaste (e.g., see the above-mentioned French patent). In all of the above-referenced patents, it is anticipated that after the paste has been consumed, the container is to be recharged with a fresh supply of paste by transferring same from a standard collapsible toothpaste tube into the container at a location behind the brush, or through an opening made accessible by removing the brush. Either operation is potentially messy and unsanitary. In some cases, the standard toothpaste tube is intended to be threadedly connected to the container during the transfer of toothpaste, with the pressure of the newly injected paste moving the piston back to an initial position; however, the expected resistance to such movement may cause the relatively weak standard toothpaste tube to burst as a result of a pressure build-up therein.
Besides involving the above-described disadvantages, previous proposals perpetuate the existence of collapsible toothpaste tubes which contain lead and/or aluminum substances which must be carefully isolated from the paste. Thus, the use of such tubes increases the overall expense associated with oral hygiene.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a combination toothbrush-paste container which is sanitary, easily replenished and not dependent upon pliable toothpaste tubes.